Satsuki Academy
by Takai Yukira
Summary: This is my first entry to Fanfiction! *bow* This was previously uploaded on quizilla, but a turn of events have forced me to change sites. Thank you for reading, and, if at all possible, please review! Thank you.
1. Chapter 1 Transferred Again

So here's the deal: Satsuki is an academy comprised of any and all manga, games, and anime that I deem worthy of attending. D So the students attending are all overzealous fighters that probably shouldn't be in the same class for the sake of any nearby cities. This first chapter will be relatively short compared to any following, because each chapter (excluding this one, obviously) will be divided into three parts, each one using a third person limited point of view, switching respectively between the three characters. Those particular characters are these: Yukira (an enigma, of sorts), Kat (a friend with questionable skills), and Serraphim, whose name is obviously derived from seraphim, the highest class of angel. For convenience, her nickname is Serra. Ah, by the way, Satsuki is a Japanese word meaning 'killer's aura.' It means the aura surrounding a person just before they are about to kill another person. This is to explain the trio's shock about the name of the academy.

"No. No way, man," said Serra quickly, staring at the ornate gate before her. The wrought iron gate looked like something out of a nightmare, made even more so by the way the metal was twisted like it had grown into that shape, towering well above them. Behind the gate, a dark forest loomed.

"Dude, this looks like something straight outta my bad dreams." Kat muttered i Way to echo my thoughts, Kat, /i Serra thought to herself, then, taking what she considered a huge chance, she turned her back to the gate to instead face her two friends.

"Quick, somebody think of a silver lining. I can't think of a good thing about this."

Yukira, leaning against one of the many trees, smiled slightly, and Kat said, "Well, you see, if it really turns out this is so bad, we can climb over this creepy fence and hitchhike back to proper civilization." Serra shook her head, not even daring to look at the fence again.

"No, we can't. There's barbwire looped on the top. And, we're up in the mountains. 'Civilization' is thirty miles away." Too short to reach the sharp thorns of the wire, Kat just looked up and stuck out her tongue.

"You've got to be kidding me," Kat yelled, her head lifted to the sky, "This is just insane! We're transferred deep into the mountains of Europe, there are no roads and no way to get to them anyway, the school is named creepy, and, worst of all, this is a i boy's /i school!!"

Serra quickly slapped her hand over Kat's mouth and whispered, "Sh. If you don't say it out loud, maybe it won't be true, and this really will be a nightmare. Ouch!" Serra removed her hand from Kat's teeth, and Kat replied, "Oh, yeah, and I'm sure Santa looks fantastic in spandex, too."

Yukira finally spoke, "Here's a silver lining for you: we were transferred together, and that's what counts."

Kat nodded, getting her point, and said, "Fuck yeah it is. That's pure gold, that is."

"So...I guess we go in."

"Yeah, can't miss class on our first day."

The trio made their way through the gate, and into the trees, which were equally eye-twitching. Serra walked first, then Yukira, then Kat, who was stopping continually to tap the trees.

"What the hell are these trees made of? There's something flowing through them, like, some sort of liquid," Kat said, biting her lip, and Serra and Yukira looked closer at them. Indeed, the trees were moving slightly, like flexible tubes as something poured through them.

"They're our energy source," announced a voice from above, in the leaves, and their heads snapped toward the sound. In the lighter section of the shadows, there stood a boy with flaming red hair that defied gravity, dressed in an outlandish leather cloak and a leather book bag hanging from his back.

"Who the hell are you?" Kat said, displaying her extensive vocabulary, and the boy responded, "The name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

Serra said quickly, trying to save the situation, "Are you a student here?"

"No, I'm just running through the mountains inside the gates because I got lost while hiking through these cold-ass mountains."

"Funny," she responded, "Now, seriously, which way's the school?"

But Serra found herself talking to the tree, as the boy smirked and disappeared pixel by pixel, leaving them alone again.

"Jerk." Kat slung her own almost-empty bag over her shoulder and kicked a tree. "Energy source, my ass."

"It's nine already. We better get going," murmured Yukira, glancing at the watch strapped to her bag, and they started off again, deeper into the shady trees and closer to the school which they knew nothing whatsoever about. Soon, however, Serra saw a glimpse of light through the trees ahead, and they rushed forward, out of the darkness and into the light.

They gasped in unison and shielded their eyes from the sudden burst of sunlight to get a better look at the amazing sight before them.

They stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking a huge valley nestled between snow-capped majestic mountains that reached far into the clouds. Below them were more trees that stretched on and then just stopped at the edge of well-kept grounds. The grounds held several smaller buildings, a maze of a garden, and a gigantic glistening lake that had a single dock in the water. But beyond the grounds was the real shocker. It was a castle, by far the biggest Serra had ever seen, even in pictures, and it stood like some ancient slumbering beast, waiting to swallow them up and teach them something, a scary prospect. There were towers that looked like nothing they had ever seen before, including one that looked as if it were topped by a huge mechanical bubble, and another that extended horizontally, straight over the lake.

"Holy--" muttered Kat, and it broke the spell.

"It's time to cause some chaos." said Yukira mischievously, rubbing her hands together in delight. You see, the trio wasn't transferred for any normal reasons, and this wasn't any normal school. This all-boys' school was a private school for troublemakers and people that didn't belong in proper society, and in this case, the girls' punishment fit the crimes.

"I knew I brought this thing for a reason," grinned Serra, pulling a folded-up board out of her bag and locking it into place.

"But you didn't being one for us?" asked Yukira heavily.

"Well, it's a good thing we have our own," Kat smirked, and pulled one out of her own bag and unfolded it, while Yukira set hers on the ground. Serra thought back to the last time they had used their airboards. It had been just last year, she reminisced happily, that they had used the school's freezers to ice over all of the halls and then used the boards to play freestyle hockey, using the principal's office as one goal and the computer lab as the other. Their boards had been confiscated and they had earned a transferal to their next school, which had been in Wisconsin. Naturally, the trio had broken in and gotten their boards back.

The boards served as normal snowboards when turned off, but if the grav-mag was switched on, then the boards reacted to metal and could hover a couple feet above grounds using magnets to propel them away from the metal frame.

"I'm switching mine on. Let's see if there's some scrap metal in these mountains." Serra kicked the nose of the board down, pressing the sensor, and then the board rose into the air, taking Serra with it. "All right!! Bonzai!!" She shouted into the cool mountain air, and kicked off the edge of the cliff. Yukira and Kat quickly followed, skimming over the rocks and dirt and falling fast and far into the trees below.

"Ya know, I bet we're getting grab on the boards because there's metal underground! There must be a framework system running under the entire castle grounds!" Yukira yelled to them as they began weaving through the trees. The dense area of trunks made it an intense challenge to not run into them head-on, but the trio had a lot of experience on the boards, and they laced themselves through the foliage expertly. Then they hit the clearing where the grounds started, and Serra pulled up too fast; her board jerked and she slipped, the nose of the board plummeting and hitting the ground. Serra flipped off the board and tumbled several feet away as her board shot up in the air as her weight left it and the magnets pushed away from the ground. i So /i this i is why most people wear collision cuffs, /i She thought as she quickly used her hands to grab onto grass to slow her momentum. Then Serra slid backwards over the slick grass and stood, catching her board in the middle of a perfect flip.

"Very nice," said Kat, clapping, and Serra bowed dramatically.

"Impressive," came another cheerful voice, and the three turned to face a man with a pinstriped hat, clogs, and a grin from ear to ear. "I'm Urahara, one of the professors here at Satsuki. And you—you must be the new students."

"So what's the deal with this place? The trees, the castle—" Kat gestured to the expansive set of buildings, and then continued, "—it's all pretty much overkill, right?"

"Not at all. Many our students require special classes, and just very number of them requires…a lot of space," Urahara responded without so much as blinking at Kat's wildly flailing arms. Serra tilted her head and folded up her airboard, sliding it into her bag, and then asked, "So are we going to class now, or a tour, or what?"

He answered merrily, "You're going to meet the headmaster, actually." He began walking, almost skipping ahead, and the trio followed him slowly, not sure if this man was sane enough to be trusted.

"Something's wrong with this guy, seriously. What kind of man past three i skips /i?" mocked Kat, none too quietly. Serra, ignoring Kat's disdain, whispered to Yukira, "You've been unusually quiet today. What's up?"

Yukira looked back over her shoulder quickly, then answered softly, "Ever since we got here, there's been a whole lotta people watching us. I haven't been able to figure out from where, though, and it's bothering me." They didn't get a chance to talk any further, as Urahara had skipped so far ahead that they had to jog just to make it in the massive castle doors after him.

Inside, the place was even more incredible. Urahara waved the room off as their entry hall. It was at least three stories high, with three sets of stairs leading up and out into various other wings, and even more extra paths on the ground level. Strangely organic pillars reached up to support the higher surrounding floors, and there was no specific light source of any type, it just seemed to emanate a soft glow from nowhere. However, upon closer inspection, Serra noticed that the glow i did /i come from something; floating in the air like diurnal fireflies were small mechanical creatures. There were hundreds in the room, floating about; they looked like tiny stars but their light was not that bright, so as to give the room its peaceful glow.

"Serra!" yelled Kat, and she snapped out of her reverie. Urahara had already turned one of the many corners, and they were about to lose him. Serra ran to catch up with Kat and Yukira, and when they finally caught up with Urahara, he was speaking to a small wrinkly woman in fighting gi.

"Ah, there you are. Thought you'd already gotten lost. If you weren't, don't worry, you will be. Kat, Yukira, Serra, this is headmaster Genkai." Urahara bowed out of the way, leaving the diminutive woman to talk to the trio. Her severe gaze cut into them, like she was studying their most inner potential.

"Welcome to Satsuki Academy. As you should know unless you dropped in from the sky, this school is a private school. For boys. Meaning your circumstances here are—special, to say the least. I'm sure you know your living arrangements here?"

There was shocked muttering among them, and Yukira spoke, "Living arrangements? Surely you don't mean—?

Serra chorused, "We're actually—"

Genkai cut both of them off, and said calmly, "All of your respective parents and your many previous school administrations believe you to be a threat to society, and have issued a formal statement decreeing that you are to live here and not leave without supervision until the age of twenty-one. You'll be here for—you're all seventeen, correct?—for the next four years."

Serra felt her jaw drop and she quickly closed it, instead letting her eyes reach maximum diameter.


	2. Chapter 2 Kat Tracking

"What the hell, lady?!" Kat shrieked at the shriveled woman, and the woman lifted one finger to point at her. Serra felt a powerful, unfamiliar force singe her skin, and Kat went flying back.

"Don't be so brash, girl. You will address me as Headmaster Genkai, or just Headmaster, with a capital H. Anything else, and I'll drop you off the astronomy tower." Genkai said, and Kat straightened indignantly from her position on the floor. She got up from the floor stiffly, and then walked the couple of meters she'd flown to stand with Serra and Yukira again. Serra asked in place of Kat, "Our guardians gave us up? Just like that? We're living here with the guys for i four years /i?"

The Headmaster nodded and said, "That's really all I needed to speak to you about. Oh, and you need to arm yourselves." Kat forgot her rage and unbridled hatred for just a moment and exchanged looks with Yukira and Serra. i Arm ourselves? /i all three thought, and Genkai moved back inside what Serra took to be the main office. When she rearrived, she dragged behind her a cart full of weapons, some familiar, and some looking like sci-fi movie props, and some things that looked like they just didn't belong there, like a pair of cloth gloves and a beautifully-preserved rose.

"I'll leave you to it, then. Here are your schedules—" Genkai handed them each a slip of purple paper, and then she disappeared into the office, leaving the worst newest troublemakers with a cart of dangerous weapons.

Serra chuckled. "Someone's either underestimating our bloodlust or overestimating our self-control."

Yukira shook her head, picking up a bundle of something, and she held it while Kat sifted through the pile as if panning for gold. She found her gold, though, and held up a wicked looking gun.

"Whaddya s'pose this is?" she said, hefting it into both arms and aiming down the hall at an ornate pillar.

"I dunno, but I don't think it fires confetti," said Serra absentmindedly, rummaging through the pile for her own weapon to use. She pushed aside two very nice black and white handguns, a set of throwing knives, and what looked to be an ornamental cane aside before she spotted something that immediately looked just right. She held it up to the light for closer examination, and it drew a gasp from Kat and a whistle from Yukira.

"Whoo, baby, that's gorgeous," Kat said under her breath, and Serra smiled, untangling the leather strap and throwing it over her shoulder so that it was slung over her back.

It was a wicked, curved blade almost four feet long, built like a scimitar but lighter and more stunning than a king's scepter. The blade ran all the way from the hilt, but the hilt also ran up through the center of the blade, covered in ancient striking designs.

"Nice choice," Yukira said, and Kat nodded to her, "So what's wrapped up in that bundle? You better've picked something good, or my opinion of you is gonna drop so low it'll hit you in the fucking head."

Yukira gave her a sarcastic glare. Yukira was a full half-foot shorter than Kat's 5'8", and Serra, right in the middle at 5'5", thought they both were arguing over nothing.

"You're so funny, Kitten," Yukira replied, and then moved the cloth aside to reveal a small mass of metal jumbled in a heap.

"Uh-huh. I assume you're going sit back and throw scrap metal at people while yelling deadly witty insults, right?" Serra said, poking the metal, and Yukira rolled her eyes. "Evidently, you two are anxious to get to class. I won't bother you with my weapon choice," she said casually, and then glanced at her purple slip.

"No, wait, I wanna knoooow," Kat whined dramatically, and Yukira shook her head.

"Hey, the Headmaster didn't give any directions or anything. She expects us to find our classes by ourselves in this huge-ass castle?" Serra said, grimacing at her first period.

"I know, right? We should skip class and say we didn't know the way," Kat said, and Yukira raised an eyebrow.

"We've been in the building barely five minutes, and you already want to skip class?"

Kat grinned.

"You bet."

"Look at this," Serra said in amazement, and the three gathered around her purple slip. In place of the short list of classes, there was drawn a tiny map of where they were, and then a red line leading from a cluster of three dots deeper into the castle, presumably toward Serra's first period, maths.

"Dude, mine's doing it, too," Kat brandished the slip, and then the three of them grinned at each other and headed their separate ways, with only the purple pieces of paper guiding them to trust that they were not heading straight into a maze.

Leaving Yukira and Serra behind in the hall, Kat followed the map to first period, which at least sounded interesting enough to attend the first time, Tracking. It led her straight out of the building, which was even cooler. Kat had always hated classrooms, hated their stifling, controlled air, and hated how the four walls seemed to close in on you when the bell rang. It was just another reason to try to skip class. But tracking class seemed worth it, especially considering she was heading straight for the forest on the east side. She went over the layout in her head quickly; they had come through the gate on the west side and entered the academy's valley on the same side, and she was heading toward the eastern mountains. The entire academy was surrounded by rings, the outer ring consisting of mountains, the inner of forest, and the innermost ring being the grounds. Just inside the grounds was that lake Kat had seen when arriving, but that was to the north, in front of the castle.

Kat stuck the paper in her pocket as she saw her class. It had about eleven people, and no one that looked like a teacher. All were male, expectedly, and, also expectedly, they turned to look at her when she came within a couple meters. Like guy-dar or something, they sensed females. Kat rolled her eyes. She certainly wasn't bad-looking, but, in the past, her schools had been public schools where the cutest guys were idiots, and so she had ignored the dating world for a long time. With her long wavy red hair, she looked positively Irish, and she was taller than average, with grey-green eyes that could never seem to lose their spark of mischief. Her skin was very sensitive but not deathly pale and it often caught the sunlight and made her skin glow. Naturally, the guys were staring at her.

As she drew closer, several wolf-whistled.

"Hey, chica, you know this is a guys' school, right?" One of them called, the big dog beside him barking at her.

"And here I thought you were all girls," she replied sweetly, and a couple of them laughed, secure enough in their gender that they knew it didn't apply to them.

"You must be one of the new girls," guessed another, his freaky blue-green eyes roving over her in a way that she found slightly offensive. "I'm Kadaj," he introduced himself.

Kat took an appraising look over his shoulder-length silver hair that hung in one eye, and then his two brothers beside him, a burly one with close-cropped silver hair, and, on his other side, a slender, colder-looking guy, with silvery hair as long Kat's own.

"Keep your eyes in your head, Kadaj, or you'll lose them," she said calmly, and the others laughed as he smirked.

The man Kat assumed was the professor finally strode out of the edge of the dense tube-trees and announced frostily, "Good morning, class." To Kat, whom he immediately noticed was present, "I am Professor Hugue De Watteau." i Damn, /i Kat thought, i he's hot. Dressed as a Catholic priest and whatnot, but hot. /i

And indeed he was. Professor Hugue had incredibly long blonde hair that, when it caught the sunlight, blazed like golden fire, green eyes that shone brighter than any cat's, and a tall, slender body that, even through the many layers of clothing, Kat could see had plenty of lithe muscles.

"Today, we'll be putting the skills we have learned in class to the test. Two of you will be picked to go 'hunt' the others down in the forest. Whether the two hunters choose to work together or not is their choice. When they hunt down another classmate, that classmate will take the place of one of the hunters. The two hunters at the end of the period are going to feed the giant viperfish at the bottom of the lake. By hand."

Groans came from the majority of the group. Even Kat had to admit, that sounded pretty harsh, regardless of what a viperfish was.

"So how're we picking the hunters?" asked the boy with the enormous dog, whom Kat had heard being called Kiba.

"I will pick. That's the fun part," Professor Hugue replied, and this time the group was nervous. "How about Sora and Kat?"

Kat raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised. She hadn't been here for the classes, but Hugue apparently thought she could handle these trained ninja and other assorted criminals she wasn't even familiar with. Either that or he was just a prick.

"Ready, hunters?" asked the Professor, and Kat nodded simultaneously with the spiky-haired kid who was obviously Sora.

"Hunted…get ready…and go!"

The rest of class sprinted and leaped into the foliage, getting their head start, and then, after a couple minutes, Hugue released Kat and Sora after them in an odd sort of hide-and-seek-tag.

"Should we work together?" Sora asked her as they both leaped through the trees to find their classmates.

"I think we should split, actually. Cover more ground that way," Kat replied, and they did so.

Left on her own, Kat stopped running and instead knelt to the ground, looking for any signs of her victims passing through. Despite never having been in Hugue's class before, Kat knew how to hunt, and not necessarily animals. She, Yukira, and Serra had never really been normal, no matter how you looked at it. Each one of them had their own set of absurd skills, and Kat felt delighted that her set included tracking.

Here and there, there were telltale signs of travel; Kat quickly identified the freshest of them: small newly-broken twigs, trampled moss on the ground, and, even less discreet, scratches on the trunks of the not-trees.

"You'd think i they /i were the ones who didn't take this class," Kat muttered to herself, following a rather distinctive trail of marks left on the trees by someone who had been leaping through them.

In theory, it was a good plan, jumping through trees, but only if you were stealthy enough to execute it properly. This person had been taught the premise, but not the follow-through. Kat grinned at no one in particular and began hunting.


	3. Chapter 3 Maths Class and Other Horrors

Serra watched, fascinated, as she and her dot both moved to follow the red line that was continually moving ahead on the paper. It led her through great corridors and up stairs until Serra finally counted six stories up, and the red line stopped some three meters ahead of her dot. Serra finally put the paper in her pocket and looked to where the line had directed her; there was a blank wall and nothing more, looking just like the rest of the halls. i So if this is a school, why am I not seeing any classrooms? I haven't seen a single one since I entered this effing building. /i Serra got closer to the wall and didn't even see a faint outline, let alone a door she was supposed to enter. She poked the brick a couple times, and then, her temper flaring, she kicked it and turned around, figuring she'd just wander around until she saw somebody or class ended.

But then, without a sound, the wall melted away in front of her, revealing her classroom. It looked positively normal, save for a few facts; the blonde teacher in front was dressed in priests' robes, the students were all male and armed to the teeth (in Serra's eyes), and the view out of the tall stone windows was i spectacular /i.

"You're late. Sit down over there," the priest said curtly, pointing to a seat just behind—

"You!" Serra said loudly, pointing to the boy in front of her new seat. It was the boy from the forest in leather with the funky hair—Axel, his name was?—and he smirked at her.

"You have a problem with sitting behind Axel, miss Serraphim?"

Serra turned her attention from Axel to the teacher. "Serra. Just Serra. And nah, there's not really—"

"Then sit down."

Grumbling to herself furiously, Serra took her place behind the boy, and quickly felt like she was being watched. She was hyper-conscious, being surrounded completely by strange guys, and she was suddenly very glad that she was armed with such a huge sword. Serra raised her hand, interrupting the priest teaching maths.

"Erm, sir?"

His impassive eyes turned to her.

"Professor Sanzo," he corrected her, and she repeated, "Professor Sanzo, I changed my mind, I'd like another seat."

He gazed at her deadpanned for a moment, and then turned back to the board. "The alignment of the shapes will determine the measurement—"

From there, Serra lost track. She immediately began to tune him out, instead looking in her bag for something to keep her amused.

"Psst," whispered one of the boys next to her none-too-quietly, and she looked up.

"What?" she whispered back, and he said, "So you're one of the new girls? Serra?"

She nodded, glancing continuously up at Sanzo, and the boy replied, "That's cool. I'm Naruto." Axel turned around completely to face them both and said, "You're moving a bit fast there, Naruto."

Naruto straightened indignantly and said, "If I were moving fast, all of you would i know /iit." They chuckled, and another red-haired guy on her other side sang, "He doesn't move near as fast as some i other /i people we know." The three of them looked at each other simultaneously and then said in unison, "Gojyo."

They laughed and the second redhead looked at Serra. "Sorry. I'm Renji. You three arriving has been one of the biggest things to look forward to around here."

Naruto interrupted with, "Except Sephiroth and Marluxia's fight."

Axel nodded casually and added, "And Fred and Ichigo's fight, and then there's Jizabel and Vincent. They never really hit it off quite right."

Serra smirked. i We're definitely going to like it here, /i she thought.

From behind her, a soft voice threatened, "Don't you dare mention his name in my presence." Serra's head swiveled to look into oddly-crimson, cavernous eyes framed by long black hair and a high red collar.

"Whatever, Vinc," Axel replies, " What are you gonna do about it? Shoot us with your gun? Or maul us with your scary gold arm? You think we could pawn it off when the school doesn't have enough money for the prison field trip?"

"Never call me Vinc again. My name is Vincent."

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that, i Vincent. /i I'm so incredibly sorry for screwing up your i name./i"

Both stood simultaneously, ready to beat the shit out of each other. Axel swiftly pulled a pair of sharp-edged throwing rings, while Vincent drew a gun, and fur was about to fly when a sudden gunshot rang out from the front of the class.

"Sit the hell down i now./i" Sanzo yelled from the front, and the weapons disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. "I will have no fighting in my class. Save it for other classes or the halls, where they belong, but i not in here./i"

Serra looked up at the ceiling above Sanzo's head and realized that it was littered with bullet holes, and she struggled to contain a laugh just as class ended, and the other students filed out to watch Vincent and Axel's continued battle in the hallway. There was flashes of fire and rapid gunshots from the center of the bustling mob, and Serra let loose her laugh. She joined the crowd that was watching them battle it out, and slid through them to the next bit of crowded hall.

She was getting very awkward stares from all of the guys moving around her, and she forced her eyes straight ahead, not daring to look at any of them. This turned out to be a bad idea, as she had no idea where she was going. i Damn it, I'm going to be so late for class. /i

"I wouldn't worry about where you're going," said a voice behind her, and she turned to face three guys, two of them twins, the other with brown hair that stuck straight up like he had used airplane glue to make it stay that way.

"How would you know if I know which way I'm going or not?" Serra replied sardonically, and the twin who had spoken laughed.

"You've got that look on your face—"

His twin interrupted, "—that gives it away. It's kind of a zombie look, that 'I've got no place to go so I'll just eat braaaaaiiins' look."

"Wow, that's nice to hear. Always encouraging to hear that I look like I need extra brains," Serra said, turning to walk the other way.

"Okay, sorry. So we really actually approached you because well, to be blunt—"

"—you're a chick," said both he and his brother at the same time, and Serra laughed, "Glad that's apparent, too. I'm Serra."

"I'm Fred, that's George, and this little bugger's Goku. He's just hungry. What do you have next?"

Serra glanced at the purple slip, which was already unsuccessfully trying to guide her to her next class, Art I.

"I've got art next."

"I've got that one next, too!" said Goku cheerily, and then continued, "It's on the ground floor, so come on."

Fred and George waved as Goku took her hand and began dragging her down the hall; she smiled at his childlike demeanor and let him pull her towards the stairs. And then right past them.

"Uh, hey, we're heading towards a dead end, Goku. The stairs—"

He looked at her incredulously, like stairs were for invalids, and then he said, "Oh, come on. It's much more fun, and faster, this way." He was heading straight for one of the huge windows at the end of the corridor, and she said, panicking a bit now, "Erm, Goku? How do you plan on getting out the window?"

"Well, flash-step works well. I was kind of planning on breaking it."

"Flash-step?"

"It's a skill the soul reapers originally brought to Satsuki, then the ninja, like my friend Sasuke, ripped off of them. Here, try it." He spent the rest of the abnormally long passing periods ("The school curriculum gives us twenty minutes, so our battles aren't cut short," Goku explained when Serra mentioned this) teaching her how to flash from place to place (short distances only), and then, when he deemed her ready, he left her on the sixth floor by flashing out the window and falling straight to the ground.

Serra took a deep breath. She couldn't see how he'd landed, as the window was stained-glass, but she steadied herself and told herself she could do this, and then ran away from the window. Then, an appropriate distance away, she ran at it, and just as she got close enough to touch the colourful glass, she put her lesson into action.

i I'm not going to make it, I'm going to break through the window and fall six stories and die on my first day at school with all these guys watching, /ishe thought, bracing herself for the impact that never came. She opened her eyes and almost immediately shut them again; she was tumbling head over heels through the air next to the building.

"OH, SHIIIIIIIITTTT!!" She shrieked, and, using some latent skill she hadn't known she had, she reached out for the stone and grabbed onto it, sliding down a ways, and then flipping over to grip it differently, she stopped herself on the wall, still four stories up. She sighed in relief, and then looked straight ahead at the ground. She screamed again and accidentally let go, and she continued plummeting through the air towards the grounds. In a desperate bid to live, she flash-stepped in mid-air to just two feet above the ground. Goku laughed as she appeared there and then hit the ground with a thud.

"That was hilarious, Serra!" he snickered, and she sat up.

"I thought I was going to die," she said amazedly, and a cold voice said from her left, "Oh, you will, with those pathetic skills."


End file.
